Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

In 1996, poet Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha ran away from America with two backpacks and ended up in Canada, where she discovered queer anarchopunk love and revolution. Through it all, she works her way through the personal and the political of intersectionality as she comes to identify as a mixed-race person and queer femme of colour, as a disabled person grappling with chronic illness (she has suffered from fibromyalgia since 1998) and as an abuse survivor. This passionate and riveting memoir is a mixtape of dreams and nightmares.

A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

Dirty River

Stephanie Ridiculous

Probably more like a 3.5.

This is not entirely what I thought it was going to be, but that's definitely on me. I read Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice last month and really wanted to hear more from Piepzna-Samarasinha, so I picked this up. 

Dirty River gave me strong nostalgic vibes from my days as a young punk; poor, reading voraciously, surviving barely, and doing everything I could to find likeminded folks. The narrative style is easy to fall into, and the needle between not being graphic about abuse and you understanding what was happening was threaded incredibly well for me.

That said, I know a lot of folks follow me of a particular persuasion so want to throw out there the content warning of lots of swearing, lots of frank discussion of sex/sexuality, and drug use. Proceed intentionally if you proceed. 

I appreciated this glimpse into Piepzna-Samarasinha & the work they do & will continue to seek out more of their work.

Dirty River A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home

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